Category: software

I made a few changes to pkShow, I added a remote control with indicators for the set. plus I added settings allow you any combination of 10 or 20 slides with 10 or 20 seconds. this way you have 1:40min, 3:20min or 6:40min set.

[UPDATE 2012-10-02]
I moved the server, when I did that I shutdown a lot of old DNS addresses and related site I don’t use anymore. So I updated the link above so you can actually download the software. If you run into that elsewhere, let me know and I’ll fix the link.

So I received a mysterious box on my doorstep (a few days ago), and to my surprise it was a Sony dash!

It’s about 7.5 inches wide (you can see pictures here), you can stand it upright, or on it’s back and the screen will flip accordingly. The Dash runs ChumbyOS and has over 1,000 widget-apps available. The interface is broken up, into: the menu system, an “alarm clock” screen mode with a power save option (it turns the screen off), and the dashboard. Currently the dashboard only has 2 different display layouts and it does not seem to be configurable. What you can configure, is: “channels”. To create a new channel, register your Dash (http://sony.com/mydash); you’ll need to sign-in or create a Sony Essentials account. Once this is complete you can edit the existing default channels or create your own. This is where you add apps to the channel. Once your Dash is registered, pull the power (re-power it) and let it reboot. It will sync to your account and will apply any changes you have made. After I did this I was able to customize and create channels on the device; not just from the website.

Here’s the VLOG I made the other day, when I received the unit…

After playing with the device for a few days, here’s some observations…

the snooze button only snoozes in 5 minute increments. A feature I like on my previous alarm clock, was the snooze default button increments were 8 minutes apart and you could compound them together by multiple taps of the snooze button. With the Dash you can specify multiple alarms and days. However, I would prefer the option of customizing the snooze delay per alarm and at the least have an option like tapping the screen to override the snooze delay temporarily.

networking with the Dash is pretty easy, but it’s only WiFi. There’s no choice for ethernet. For most, this isn’t an issue and it wasn’t for me. However, if I wanted to take the Dash to work it would be an enormous amount of red tape to get the device on the work WiFi network. This wasn’t a problem for me at home and I was able to add the Dash to my secured WiFi network (because I’m the red tape; the argument with myself was pretty short).

streaming music and videos is a nice touch, especially when combined with the alarm. However, in my bedroom, I’m not likely to watch any streaming videos on the device. I can do this directly from my TiVo. Like most households, I already have a TV in my bedroom (bigger than 7 inches). But I do understand this is a nice feature to have, if you put the Dash in your kitchen.

the screen is vibrant and images and video come through just fine.

the touch screen works just fine. I think any comments about the device feeling lagged has less to do the touch screen the more to do with the speed in which the device operates at. However, keep in mind the ChumbyOS is simple by design and is not intended to give you the pinch/zoom gesture experiences you get on iPhones, iPads and Android devices.

ChumbyOS is a very basic operating system. I’m not sure, but it feels flash based. I think Dash would of benefited from a richer operating system; by running something like Android instead. I assume if it was running Android the specs on the device would go up as well as the starting price. But if the Dash was running Android, you would have many more feature filled apps at your disposal. For example, Cooking Capsules running on your Dash in your kitchen I think would be invaluable.

media server / UPnP support is lacking. I wish this device was able to stream content from the media server in my house network. It’s nice that you can play music via a USB jump drive, but allowing this from iTunes or a media server would be a better direction to take, in my opinion.

In the VLOG, I mentioned several minutes of downloading. It turns out that Sony just released updates the day I received the device. So I suspect that this was uncommon and is not likely to happen often. Also worth mentioning, the Dash has a microphone. I didn’t find any applications that made use of the mic, but it’s nice there was some forward thinking on the design.

In summary, I like the device. I can see the potential. Is the Dash fulfilling all that it can be, right now? I don’t think so. But keep in mind, how many alarm clocks have you had in the past that could auto-update itself with new features, and run applications? that’s what I thought. I had a car radio system that could do that (a rio car), and for gadget nerds like me, that’s the “crack topping” to the awesomeness-sundae. Is it worth the cost? (currently at $199) …I would say yes. It’s a nice design and has a lot of potential, especially if you can find a use outside of the bedroom (like in a kitchen, your office, etc).

UPDATE (2010-06-01): Last night (technically this morning) I received an update. I noticed 3 changes: you can now define a snooze interval (from a list of options) per alarm profile, there’s a full screen option for the apps and now there’s more than 2 layouts (aka themes). Remember that potential thing I was mentioning above? yeah, there it is.

you might be asking yourself, why so many updates? simple answer. as I use the app more, small things needed some improvement, I made a few graphic changes (that I missed) and the app now checks for updates automatically.

for those in a hurry, here’s the latest version, you can download it here.

for those new to shortner, let me give you a brief explanation of what it is, and why you might want to use it. shortner is a URL shrinking platform. basically we can take long URLs (website links) and shrink them down to something easier to remember; a short-link. because we’re a true platform (not just a website application), we have developed an API (XML or JSON), and we can bind a shortner site to any DNS address (shortner.com, qrk.me, podcamp.me, etc). we even built the option to host private shortner sites and more. I won’t cover every feature, as the details will bore most of you reading this.

now this isn’t a new technology. TinyURL.com was the first that I know of to do this. I produce a podcast and we use shortner to track URL stats, and to share links during the show. once you have set the expectation, you really only need to read the short-code URL. we have also added a handful of other options not common to most URL shrinking sites: we automatically check each submitted link to see if it’s a malware site, generate QR codes (for your link), you can set a NSFW flag, add tags, add a description, and password the shortner link.

every link has a tracking page (example: http://qrk.me/_track/67) so you can track your stats. I use shortner when I want to share or tweet a link. it’s interesting to see how fast people look at the link after you tweet.

as I mentioned before, shortner is a platform. so if you choose to create an account, your user/pass works for all shortner sites. in addition to this, because of the API we have created several applications on different platforms (Windows Mobile, Android, Windows, Google Talk bot, Adobe Air, a .net library for developers and more). coming soon: a Silverlight based version, an updated Windows Mobile version, a Windows Phone 7 version and an iPhone application.

hopefully you see the flexibility we can offer with shortner. we would love for you to give it a try. and give us feedback. we’re always open to suggestions. if you’re a fellow youtuber or podcaster (with thousands of subscribers) don’t hesitate to contact us about a personal shortner site; we’re always looking for someone to try out shortner on a large audience to see how well the platform performs.

if we still haven’t lost your attention, check out the quick video tour. it’s a little outdated, but can provide you with more insight to what has been mentioned here.

the last thing on my mind… sometime in the near future, I plan to do a video on the Shortner (desktop) application. for now I’ll just give you a quick run-down of features that might not be so obvious.

you can drag and drop (a URL; in text form) on to the application

you can drag and drop an internet shortcut (from the desktop or a folder)

you can right-click and paste a URL from the clipboard

you can right-click and specify an API key (if you have one)

it remembers the last shortner site you used and is selected by default

it restores its last location and is multi-monitor sensitive

sticky mode lets you retain the last tags used

it remembers your username and password

it can be set to auto-login on start

it keeps an on-going history of your links (with quick access to the tracking pages and etc)

…and more

I’m proud of shortner and we plan to continually add, change and improve. it’s worth nothing that the “we” is @webdevvie and @chaeseco (also @chaess); 98% John and 2% me. if you’re a developer, please check out our wiki we would love to see what you do with the platform. John and I will be at Google I/O 2010 (I’ll be wearing a shortner shirt); say hello if you see us walking around.

I made a couple minor updates this morning. but the one new feature worth nothing is the “show past links” feature. basically as you use the application we will log the links you created in the past. the log is stored locally, so it will only show links you created with that computer. you can find the new feature, under link history and then right-click.

I made another update to the desktop app (which you can download here). I added the password and description feature as well as updated the library which is included with this download. you can also get the update (inside the application) by clicking on “check for updates”under the help menu (right-click the systray icon).

I made a couple updates. I fixed an minor issue with the “last service used” feature. all it does, is after you successfully make a new shortner link, the app will keep track of the shortner service-site you used and auto-selects this site by default. it wasn’t updating this information in all scenarios. that is now fixed.

the second change, is I added a shortner URL (history) window. every time you make a new link it will store the shorter link, the original link and the date / time it was created. if you right-click on the row, you can browse to the shortner link, it’s tracking page or the original link. if all of this is confusing, see my original post, here.

you can download the latest copy, here. future updates will include the password-ing and description features. I will add those features in the near future; stay tuned.

if you’re a .net developer and would like to use shortner inside your app, take a look at our .net library, here.

I haven’t written about shortner in a while. this week I finally made some accomplishments with regards to shortner. sometime last year John had upgraded the shortner platform to version 2.0. part of the upgrade included a newly revamped API (rest / json / xml based). because of this, any previous apps I had built were now invalidated.

so this week, I took some time and completely rebuilt the windows native desktop app, updated and brought the gtalk/jabber bot back online (currently invite only), and created a .DLL library for other developers to use.

hopefully in the near future we’ll create a download page on the shortner blog and etc. there you’ll find all the apps we’ve written so far: the AIR app, the Android app (check the market), the windows native app, etc. plus at some point we’ll update the wiki, with how to download and use the .DLL library; so you can use shortner with your windows-based applications.

in the past I had built a windows mobile app for shortner… I plan to update this as well. not to mention John is planning on creating the iPhone app for shortner.

the desktop app, is system tray based (next to the clock); so it stays present while you have it running, you can drag-&-drop internet shortcuts on it, drag-&-drop selected text-links, paste links from the clipboard, specify an API key (in you have one) and it actively saves your preferences.

so that’s in for now, constructive feedback and feature requests are always welcome. enjoy.

shortner is a URL shrinking service much like bit.ly and tinyurl; but designed with podcasters and bloggers in mind. this video is a quick tour on how to use the web application and will demonstrate you how to use the most basic features of the platform.

once and a while I check the number of downloads for mSeesmic; that come directly to my server. I have noticed many PocketPC / Windows Mobile sites cache a copy (mostly an older copy) of the app on their servers for download. so my observations are limited to what is downloaded from the site directly.

anyhow, the reason I’m writing this post, was to mention I haven’t forgotten about you. I will be releasing an update soon. I just need to find some time to work on the enhancements I want to make… which will include some of the following…